PhotoVoice Facilitator's Guide

The guide has been developed to help organisations working in low-, middle-, and high-income countries prepare, organise, and facilitate a PhotoVoice training. Developed by Rutgers, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) working in sexual and reproductive health and Rights (SRHR), the guide is intended to inspire other NGOs in the development field to use PhotoVoice as a new, creative, and effective way to do participatory research, data collection, and organisational or community capacity building.

The guide describes Photovoice as follows: “PhotoVoice methodology is rooted in both photojournalism and international development. PhotoVoice projects focus on a specific issue and aim to bring lasting change to participants, empowering them to inform others and to be actively involved in decisions that affect their own lives and their community’s development. PhotoVoice is commonly used in the fields of community development, public health, and education. Participants in a PhotoVoice project are asked to represent their point of view or opinion by photographing scenes relevant to the examined community or peer group. The starting point for each project is a carefully designed research question, which determines the direction of the outcome.” For more information on Photovoice, see this fact sheet “PhotoVoice: A creative and effective tool for purposes such as monitoring, participatory research, data collection and capacity building” [PDF].

As stated in the guide, “the methodologies in the guide are all tried and tested: they have been applied in settings in Africa and Asia, with groups of different participants (young people, adults, professionals, volunteers) with various social and educational backgrounds, in both research and advocacy projects in the field of sexual and reproductive health and rights.”

The guide allows users to prepare and follow a comprehensive PhotoVoice course, with the option - depending on the objectives of their PhotoVoice project, research context or participants - of adding the suggested extras to activities where relevant.

The guide sets out the following eight training blocks:

Block I: PhotoVoice training - getting started
Block II: The Basics of Photography
Block III: How to work a camera?
Block IV: Research Question
Block V: Fieldwork
Block VI: Selection process
Block VII: The Exhibition
Block VIII: Closure

The PhotoVoice Facilitator’s Guide is accompanied by a set of PowerPoint presentations developed for both the African and Asian context. The presentations give direction and depth to certain sessions and provide examples, which help the participants to understand concepts of photography and PhotoVoice itself. They are as follows:

Presentation 1: What do we see?
Presentation 2: Linking images
Presentation 3: Composition
Presentation 4: Reality symbolism
Presentation 5: How to work a camera
Presentation 6: Photography exercises
Presentation 7: Getting Started

This guide has been prepared by Rutgers in cooperation with the Youth Empowerment Alliance, which consists of seven alliance members: Rutgers, AMREF Flying Doctors, CHOICE for Youth and Sexuality, dance4life, International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Simavi, and STOP AIDS NOW.

Click here to download this guide in PDF format.

Click here to access the guide, as well as the set of powerpoint presentations for Africa and Asia.